superb scepters?

[snuggleform]

I'm aware of the following sources of superb scepters -

a) random drops from sinking/boarding high level ships
b) unique named scepters

Does anyone know of anywhere to purchase or pick up guaranteed superb scepters outside of the above mentioned sources?

edit: they do not drop from respawning ship battles

[snuggleform]

I'm actually not even sure that ships drop scepters at all, I cleared all the bounty ships, and 20+ ships on top of that as I was farming for gold and looking for scepters but none dropped, not even fine or exceptional ones. Got lots of rods and wands.

[Nono]

As rare as exceptional/superb and unique Pikes. Can't rely on creating a build with these weapons , there are so few.

[snuggleform]

I think it may be better to have Aloth with his background that gives him the unique scepter so you can up it to legendary then. The helm is very nice don't get me wrong, but I think there are only 3 other unique scepters in the game and it's tough to find superb scepter so if you're looking to equip 4 non-tanks with scepters for a rough fight like dorungan it might be worth it.

I'm pretty sure the respawning ships only drop certain types of weapons. They drop arquebuses, wands, and pollaxes in huge quantities, scepters it seems not at all, and the other stuff with a lot less frequency.

[Ping Crosby]

You can get the The Eye of Wael as soon as you leave the first island... without fighting anything. Why do you want a Superb Scepter when you can have an enchantable Superb one with bonuses to illustion spells?

[snuggleform]

Because I want 5 superb scepters, one for each character. I'm well aware of getting the eye of wael early, that does not help get everyone a scepter for ranged crushing damage.

[snuggleform]

Ok sigilmaster auranic drops a superb scepter, but that sort of defeats the purpose since you want superb scepter to beat up her totems to begin with.

[Teratus]

Curious but why do you want all your characters to have Scepters?

[Berserkr]

Ranged crushing damage I guess

[snuggleform]

There are numerous enemies that have lower crush armor than all the other armor types, it's handy to have scepters as a secondary weapon for those scenarios. For example, sigilmaster's totems are immune to pierce and slash, dorudugan has a lower crush armor rating than everything else, same with guardian of ukaizo, many more examples.

I'm not saying it's required to get through those scenarios, it's just an option I like to have.

[Teratus]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

There are numerous enemies that have lower crush armor than all the other armor types, it's handy to have scepters as a secondary weapon for those scenarios. For example, sigilmaster's totems are immune to pierce and slash, dorudugan has a lower crush armor rating than everything else, same with guardian of ukaizo, many more examples.

I'm not saying it's required to get through those scenarios, it's just an option I like to have.

Nah I get it, I have my characters cover for various damage types too, I try to avoid giving my characters multiple sets that focus on the same damage type.

I'm just curious why a full party of Scepter's though.. there are other weapons that do crushing damage that also have useful proficiency abilities like Mace which reduces the enemy's armour rating on hits, Warhamer's which get +2 Penetration or Clubs which can lower the enemy's will defence and make them more vulnerable to certain spells and negative effects such as Expose Vulnerabilities, Recall Agony and spells that dominate/control foes etc.

I don't see the reasoning for everyone going with scepter over a more diverse weapon line.

Those totems I get though, I always have Aloth take them out at range with a scepter too and I pull enemies away from them to avoid their effects.
While they reflect spells they can't reflect AoE so a few fireballs or combos usually does the trick for me :)

[snuggleform]

Those other weapons you mention involve getting into melee range, which is dangerous.

I don't know why it's hard to see that. If the mace had 8 range I'd have diversified long ago.

I don't build my characters for melee combat. I also use a metric ton of summons which makes it harder, even if I wanted to (and I don't want to) get into melee range. The quarterstaff has reach, but it has less penetration than the scepter with modal on.

And yes, I do use eccea's blaster for one of my ranged alternatives to help deal with situations where piercing damage is resisted, but again, that leaves 4 other characters whose slots I have to fill. There are exactly 4 unique scepters in the game so I can kit them out, eventually, but only 2 of those can be found early, and of those 2, one of them involves an opportunity cost against a really good helmet.